More than half-a-dozen firms have expressed their keenness to partner with Coimbatore-based Amrita Automotive Research and Technology Centre (AARTC) to conduct live research pertaining to automotive sector.
It is an industry-academia collaboration to bridge the skill gap in automotive sector. It is also to help research students get hands-on experience on a full-time basis.
Described as the first-of-its-kind centre in the country, the Rs.15-crore venture is launched by Amrita University and Automotive Test Systems.
The investment will be shared by the promoters in equal proportion.
In the first phase, AARTC houses infrastructure for vehicle evaluation, engine testing and development and basic NVH facilities. The second phase would have hemi-anechoic room, reverberation rooms, listening studio and complete NVH facilities.
Talking to The Hindu , Amrita School of Engineering, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, S. Thirumalini, said: “We are receiving enquiries from several companies — TVS group, Pricol, Renault Nissan, Bosch, Mahindra Reva and Roots — to be a partner of this centre. We envisage this facility will be in the forefront to nurture creativity and talent and provide the right ambience for disruptive technologies to evolve.”
In the first phase, 20 PhD and M.Tech students would work on a ‘live’ industrial project of a well-known firm for three-to-six months. Simultaneously, students would be asked to work on new innovative projects, which would be curiosity-based research, and not the company suggested ones, she said.
